Are certain goals more achievable for businesses than others?
I think it is very important question, and at the UN Global Compact we find it really important to say that companies cannot exclusively prioritize one or a few sustainable development priorities, if they at the same time are undermining others through negative impacts on the environment or by contributing to human rights violations through their supply chains. So any company that seeks to be part of the solution, must first and foremost take responsibility for and address its negative impact as guided by the Ten Principles of the UNGC and the UN Guiding Principles on Human Rights.
Being aware of what you're doing and any unintended consequences is vital, so restricting fishing rights without thinking the consequences through may impact poverty for example. But conversely by addressing another goal business may positively impact multiple goals. I would be inclined to take an optimistic view, but emphasise the importance of considering unintended consequences of your proposed action, before you act.
How should businesses engage with teenagers, young adults and consumers?
Hi Sarah, I'm glad you brought consumers into the discussion. With teenagers and young adults being a significant consumer demographic, this gives them a lot of influence in how businesses contribute to SDGs. A PWC study found that 85%-95% of consumers said that their buying behaviour would be influences by whether the business they were buying from had contributed towards the SDGs. That's a great starting point to advocate for the sustainable use of natural resource . You can see the study here:
https://www.pwc.com/gx/en/sustainability/SDG/SDG%20Research_FINAL.pdf
Consumer awareness is now bigger than ever. There is a lot of frustration out there on the part of consumers, who don't trust the products they buy. This has to do with sustainability fair sourcing of materials, and safety. That's why companies need to measure and disclose their full contributions to the SDGs.
Great set of questions on youth and employee engagement. There are a number of different initiatives already underway to engage students and other young people around the Global Goals. Through the PRME initiative, for example, the UN Global Compact is trying to tap into the passion and creativity of students from 500+ business schools with a view to map and celebrate the most significant business solutions that have the potential to scale locally. Companies clearly has the opportunity to tap into this pool of passion and creativity by engaging young people as customers and maybe most importantly as employees or future employees. Here I think it is important to make sure that "employee engagement" is not just a about communicating the Global Goals and making them known to the employees. For companies to truly become more sustainable and advance the Global Goals as part of their core business, the goals needs to be translated into company-specific goals and strategies and become part of the day-to-day responsibilities for employees across the organization in everything from R&D to production, sales and investor relations. See for example Roadmap for Integrated Sustainability
Should business take more responsibility for the SDGs?
I think every business regardless of its size is responsible for contributing to the SDGs. The level of ambition, reach and impact may vary, but all have a role to play. I also think it requires holistic thinking. Prioritization, gap and sector-specific expertise analysis on each of the goals will certainly be important, and help companies identify key areas of intervention and impact acceleration. But the spirit of the SDG framework requires a thinking that recognizes the connections and synergies across the Goals. I believe it will be important for companies to clearly understand their net positive development impact, and identify those areas that will generate/maximize impact in one area as well as those that will have multiplier effects on other SDGs.
The SDGs have a clear call to action for business. I think what businesses need to do is look at the 17 goals and take time to understand them and identify which ones are relevant to their business and the environment in which they operate and then put their efforts towards addressing that goal. We at Safaricom have prioritised 9 of the 17 goals that relate to our business and have integrated them into our products and services; our workplace and our community.
Actually I think this is relevant to everyone and I am not sure how one cold apportion quotas of responsibility as it seems to be such a challenge to agree at all. My view is frankly we all have a vital role to 'play,' we need to 'play' consciously and we need to challenge ourselves. So every business needs to do what it can and be recognised and celebrated for their efforts, which is what we try to do at BITC
Businesses have a moral obligation to engage with the SDGs as a fundamental part of their social license to operate. But the SDGs also lay out a strong business case for why the private sector should be engaged. The Global Goals helps businesses identify future opportunities, stabilizing societies and markets, as well as strengthening stakeholder relations and keeping pace with policy requirements.
Absolutely, businesses should contribute and not merely for philanthropic purposes, there's a business case for it. Unilever CEO Paul Polman said in 2011 that the company lost approximately 200 million euros due to climate change, natural disasters and inequality. Therefore taking ownership of SDGs is beneficial for businesses in the long-term.
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How are businesses getting employees engaged with the SDGs?
There have been some really interesting examples of employee engagement with the goals and I wold reference Unilever who invited all their employees to comment on which goals did they think were most important and why. This really precipitated some great internal dialogue and helped land understanding of the Goals internally.. Of course Unilever address all of the Goals and now they know they have employee support and endorsement through this engagement
Here is an example of how Safaricom integrated the SDGs into their business strategy, cascaded it through the business and therefore gave goals and reporting KPIs to individuals and teams through the business. We launched this early this year and are still in the early stages
https://home.kpmg.com/content/dam/kpmg/pdf/2016/07/za-safaricom-case-study.pdf
How can businesses and government work better on the SDGs?
21 governments reported on how they have been implementing the SDGs and 20 reported on business contributions. However they did this in a rather haphazard way, with more of a focus on ad hoc projects than shedding light on the systemic impact of business activity within their jurisdictions. So we need more corporate reporting that can then be captured by governments and aggregated.
That's a great question. In India, the amendment to the Companies Act by the government that requires organisations above a certain size to give 2% of their profits towards corporate social responsibility is intended towards creating more partnerships for development. However, this can only go so far in resulting in action. What is needed is for countries to identify national priorities and to work in partnership with the social sector and private sector to achieve this. Setting up a multi-sector coalition aimed towards certain specific SDGs could help coalesce organisations around common goals.
This is a very important question. The Global Goals will only be reached through ambitious strategies and activities in countries around the world. A good place to start is for each government to develop a National Implementation Plan in close dialogue with business and civil society. The UN Global Compact itself is mostly focused on the solutions developed by business, and we need to support that new innovations in technology and business models that emerge in one country and region can be scaled and implemented across the world.
Emily, I think it's a mix of things: 1. dialogue 2. agreement and recognition of each partners role. 3. Governments need to create the right enabling environments both for business to do what it does best, i.e., create economic growth and opportunity, and also to create the right collaborative frameworks for business, government and civil society to work productively together to meet social needs when governments cannot meet them by themselves. 4. agreement on how to measure these results
Hi everyone. We've been analyzing how the world's largest mining companies report on local procurement which has a huge impact on SDGs of course. One thing we notice is that some companies are hesitant to talk about their positive impacts in reporting because they can be afraid of raising expectations, and we hear a lot of people from CSR/Sustainbility say they get a lot of pressure from their legal teams on this in particular.
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What we'll be discussing
When the sustainable development goals were launched a year ago, great emphasis was placed on the crucial role the private sector would play in achieving them by 2030.
“We are spreading the word far and wide that every business has a responsibility to improve our world,” Ban Ki-moon, secretary-general of the United Nations said at the time.
Yet business engagement with the goals has been low so far. Fewer than half of global companies plan to engage with the goals, according to Ethical Corporation’s State of Responsible Business 2016 report. The study showed that most engagement came from businesses in Africa, Latin America and the Middle East, while it was lowest in North America.
If businesses continue to ignore the SDGs – or treat them as an add-on, rather than a core strategy – can they be achieved in the next 14 years?
Join us on Wednesday 14 December, 1-2pm (GMT), to debate the role business in achieving the SDGs. Questions we will explore include:
- How big a role should businesses play in the SDGs?
- Why should businesses engage with the SDGs?
- What can be learned from businesses that are actively working on the SDGs?
- Are certain goals more relevant or achievable for businesses than others?
- What is the best way to foster successful public-private partnerships?
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Panel guests
- Sue Adkins, international director, Business in the Community
- Teresa Fogelberg, deputy chief executive, GRI
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Ole Lund Hansen, chief, Business of Tomorrow, UN Global Compact
- Sanda Ojiambo, head of corporate responsibility, Safaricom
- Paula Pelaez, head of Business Call to Action
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Archana Sinha, senior change manager,
health and nutrition initiative, Ashoka - Moderator, Sarah Shearman, Guardian Sustainable Business
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How to join the discussion
Make sure you’re a registered user of the Guardian and join us in the comments section below, which will open on the day of the live chat.
You can send questions for the panel in advance by emailing sarah.shearman@theguardian.com or tweeting @GuardianSustBiz using the hashtag #AskGSB
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The SDGs are far too important to be seen as only a cherry-picking or PR exercise. It's about seriously measuring the material positive or negative impact of business on crucial challenges like poverty, climate change, gender equality and social justice. This is about making sure the little girl in Bangladesh has the same opportunities as the little boy growing up in London.